Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is one of those books that has floated in development limbo for years. Directors have come and go, but it's never quite made it to screens. Marc Forster is the latest filmmaker who thinks he can get it there.
The story follows a little boy eventually named Nobody – Bod for short — who clambers out of his crib one night and out of the house, the same night that his entire family is killed by a terrifying man called Jack. The baby wanders into a graveyard, where he is hidden from the killer by friendly ghosts, and then adopted by them. Nobody, as he is then called, is raised by the Owens, a deceased couple, Silas, who's neither dead nor alive, and a whole graveyard full of spooks.
Originally published in 2008, the tome won several awards, including the American Newberry Medal. It first popped up on radars thanks to Neil Jordan looking to adapt it, but it never materialized. Next up was Disney, which hired Henry Selick to turn it into a stop-motion movie. Yet after little forward motion, Ron Howard was the next to take a crack around the time he was shepherding Rush to cinemas, but once again little happened.
Forster will also produce the movie alongside his partner Renée Wolfe, while David Magee (who wrote Finding Neverland for the director) is scripting.
It's a busy old time for Forster, who is finishing not one but two movies – White Bird: A Wonder Story is due out on 14 October, while the Tom Hanks-starring remake A Man Called Otto (also written by Magee) will reach us on 6 January next year.